What is TimeBank?

Banc del Temps is a project that aims to encourage and improve coexistence between people living or working in the same neighbourhood through an exchange of time instead of money.

It has objective of improving the day to day life of its members by encouraging people to share their time with other members of the community and to assist with the day to day tasks of those who need help.

In this way it tries to help people be more aware of their fellow members of the community by encouraging exchanges of assistance. It could be helping care for children, the elderly or the sick, or it could be a simple exchange of services.

Over the last few years it has had a success, internationally and locally, on a scale not thought possible before.

How does it work?

Banc del Temps aims to help people be more aware of their fellow members of the community by encouraging exchanges of help.

When you have registered for Banc del Temps you will be provided with a list of what is on offer, and which includes contact details of everyone who is offering something. If you find something you are interested in you can contact that person and arrange to meet to give or receive the service.

Remember that one of the most important things about Banc del Temps is that it uses time as a currency for exchange instead of money.

Let’s say you need help moving houses and you find a Banc del Temps member offering help with this. If they help you for one hour, you then have one hour debited from your account. The person has an hour credited to their account. When you, in turn, go on to help someone with something you are offering then you have that time credited back to you.

It is even possible to be, for example, 10 hours in debit, i.e. a situation where you have recieved 10 hours of services but are yet to offer anything in return. It may simply be that nobody has contacted you, but the idea is really that if you start contacting and requesting services form people, it will then inspire them to do the same.

What types of things are on offer?

At Banc del Temps you will find an enormous amount of services on offer. Here are just some examples:

Taking children to and from school; accompanying elderly people to visit the doctor; reading to the elderly; help with information technology; help with school homework; help with the shopping; small domestic tasks; domestic repairs; taking care of animals and plants; accompanying people to the cinema, theatre or for walks; language learning.

Who can participate?

Everybody has things they can offer and things they need in return. Banc del Temps is open to everyone, female, male, young or old.

Banc del Temps, Gracia

The Gracia branch was opened in 2004 and now has over 300 members. It is now based at Lluïsos de Gràcia.